Lifestyle

New Zealand Prime Minister Goes Live On FB Sans Makeup, With New Baby!

There’s always a frisson of excitement when a celebrity or a star is going to have a baby. When the baby is born, how much it weighs, what it’ll be named, everything is up for discussion. Once this initial excitement dies down and Twitter and Instagram are spent, the wanting of the pictures of the happy mum and babies start. And it is at this point that you rarely see popular, powerful women step out after having children looking, well, real.

So it was exciting, thrilling and extremely motivating to see the Prime Minister of New Zealand deliver her first address after having a baby sans any makeup. Jacinda Ardern is the first woman to give birth while in office since 1990. Jacinda’s first address was unconventional in many ways. She chose to do a Facebook Live, and she went on without a stitch of makeup. It’s perhaps also fitting because she was talking about the first day of a paid parental leave plan for New Zealand. This includes benefits like leave and a stipend during the first year.

We love how much more honest, real and powerful her speech was because she made it look accessible. She also made a joke about her new mom time, claiming that “This is my permanent state at the moment, either breastfeeding or this,” gesturing to the baby — aka her “human hot water bottle” — in her arms.

This is especially telling in times when we have moms like Kate Middleton who made an appearance a few hours after having a baby looking fabulous, making moms everywhere feel completely inadequate.